watercooling information needed,please
Discussion
Do's:
Test fittings.
Test the equipment before installation with coolant flowing.
Keep the plumbing simple as possible, the more complex it is, the more fragile.
Place the resevoir somewhere you can see it, this draining is a warning of a leak.
Use something like distilled water + water wetter.
Get a flow meter that can output to the fan header on the motherboard, this way if the pump packs up, or isn't turned on the system will cut out.
Don't's:
Don't try and DIY a water cooled power supply... you can buy them but making it yourself is a recipie for disaster.
Go cheap. You'll regret it in the long run.
Use tap water.
Use the fish tank as a resevoir.
Water cooling is one of those things that is both simple and complex depending on how much of the system you want to cool with the rig. If it's just CPU then it's a pretty simple thing; conversley CPU + Northbridge + Gfx + HDD sledges + PSU + whatever is pretty complex.
As you can imagine the piping, radiator and pump can, if your looking at DIYing it take up a lot of space so really a bigish tower case is worth investing in. Take a look at www.dangerden.com for the individual bits and bobs, obviously don't buy a pump from them as it'll be the wrong voltage
I belive Zalman also put out a W/C kit of sorts that is pretty simple to install and seems to work pretty good.
Have to admit W/C is a lot quieter than air cooling and is a pretty fun engineering project. I'd also suggest if your DIYing that getting a Dremal and a few other metal working tools is a good idea as that way you can slice away parts of the case to make room for other odds and ends.
Test fittings.
Test the equipment before installation with coolant flowing.
Keep the plumbing simple as possible, the more complex it is, the more fragile.
Place the resevoir somewhere you can see it, this draining is a warning of a leak.
Use something like distilled water + water wetter.
Get a flow meter that can output to the fan header on the motherboard, this way if the pump packs up, or isn't turned on the system will cut out.
Don't's:
Don't try and DIY a water cooled power supply... you can buy them but making it yourself is a recipie for disaster.
Go cheap. You'll regret it in the long run.
Use tap water.
Use the fish tank as a resevoir.
Water cooling is one of those things that is both simple and complex depending on how much of the system you want to cool with the rig. If it's just CPU then it's a pretty simple thing; conversley CPU + Northbridge + Gfx + HDD sledges + PSU + whatever is pretty complex.
As you can imagine the piping, radiator and pump can, if your looking at DIYing it take up a lot of space so really a bigish tower case is worth investing in. Take a look at www.dangerden.com for the individual bits and bobs, obviously don't buy a pump from them as it'll be the wrong voltage
I belive Zalman also put out a W/C kit of sorts that is pretty simple to install and seems to work pretty good.
Have to admit W/C is a lot quieter than air cooling and is a pretty fun engineering project. I'd also suggest if your DIYing that getting a Dremal and a few other metal working tools is a good idea as that way you can slice away parts of the case to make room for other odds and ends.
Edited by thepassenger on Thursday 31st August 01:37
The above advice is good.
I forked out just under £200 for all the bits I used, purchased from here: www.alphacool.de/index.php?lang=en They will sell you a full kit ready plumbed including a case, or all the heatsinks, connectors, pipes and pumps you could ever need. I bought a kit, but added on a second GFX card cooler as I have two cards in my system. Alphacool was, when I was looking, by far the cheapest.
It's not the prettiest install in the world but I don't care, as the hulking great mesh case it's in is already ugly as sin. AS you can see, I had to split the cold water feed into two, one which runs through the two graphics cards in series, and another which runs through the CPU and northbridge in series, before they recombine into the outlet which runs into the radiator:
Dremel is very useful, I had to cut a hole in the back of my case to allow the warm water outlet into the radiator which I mounted on top of the case. The cold water outlet from the radiator just goes through an empty PCI slot at the bottom.
When all closed up it looks like this:
Note that the system still retains two 12cm fans, one inside the case and one on the radiator. I actually think I could dispense with the radiator fan but since I still have a powersupply fan which is much louder than all the others, I can't be bothered.
In hindsight I should have replaced the power supply at the same time, possibly with a watercooled one but they do cost a fortune. My system is still no-where near silent. The waterpump gives off a slight hum, even though it's suspended so it's not touching anything. The fans are all still way too loud for my liking, but it's only my laziness that stops me from finishing the job!
edit to add... What I intended to say before I started writing all this and crawling around photographing my handywork was that what you mount and where will depend entirely on what kit you buy and what kit you are mounting it into/onto. There are so many different types of pump, cooler and radiator available, you can basically end up with any combination of bits that will require a totally different approach.
It's not rocket science though, and as long as you bear in mind water and electricity aren't the best bed fellows, you will be fine. If you are mix and matching bits, watch out for the pipe internal/external diameter and the fitting diameter. 8mm pipe wont go onto a 10mm fitting!
I forked out just under £200 for all the bits I used, purchased from here: www.alphacool.de/index.php?lang=en They will sell you a full kit ready plumbed including a case, or all the heatsinks, connectors, pipes and pumps you could ever need. I bought a kit, but added on a second GFX card cooler as I have two cards in my system. Alphacool was, when I was looking, by far the cheapest.
It's not the prettiest install in the world but I don't care, as the hulking great mesh case it's in is already ugly as sin. AS you can see, I had to split the cold water feed into two, one which runs through the two graphics cards in series, and another which runs through the CPU and northbridge in series, before they recombine into the outlet which runs into the radiator:
Dremel is very useful, I had to cut a hole in the back of my case to allow the warm water outlet into the radiator which I mounted on top of the case. The cold water outlet from the radiator just goes through an empty PCI slot at the bottom.
When all closed up it looks like this:
Note that the system still retains two 12cm fans, one inside the case and one on the radiator. I actually think I could dispense with the radiator fan but since I still have a powersupply fan which is much louder than all the others, I can't be bothered.
In hindsight I should have replaced the power supply at the same time, possibly with a watercooled one but they do cost a fortune. My system is still no-where near silent. The waterpump gives off a slight hum, even though it's suspended so it's not touching anything. The fans are all still way too loud for my liking, but it's only my laziness that stops me from finishing the job!
edit to add... What I intended to say before I started writing all this and crawling around photographing my handywork was that what you mount and where will depend entirely on what kit you buy and what kit you are mounting it into/onto. There are so many different types of pump, cooler and radiator available, you can basically end up with any combination of bits that will require a totally different approach.
It's not rocket science though, and as long as you bear in mind water and electricity aren't the best bed fellows, you will be fine. If you are mix and matching bits, watch out for the pipe internal/external diameter and the fitting diameter. 8mm pipe wont go onto a 10mm fitting!
Edited by _dobbo_ on Thursday 31st August 08:24
I'd say the CPU needs to get the first feed, followed by graphics card (if it needs it) then anything else that's left.
Output from the last cooler then goes into the radiator, and output from the radiator back into the pump.
Excuse the crappy drawings:
simple system:
more complex system:
The more you cool the bigger your pump and radiator need to be. That's one of the reasons I bought a kit, so that I knew everything would fit together and more importantly be up to the task.
Output from the last cooler then goes into the radiator, and output from the radiator back into the pump.
Excuse the crappy drawings:
simple system:
more complex system:
The more you cool the bigger your pump and radiator need to be. That's one of the reasons I bought a kit, so that I knew everything would fit together and more importantly be up to the task.
many thanx dobbo.ive got water chill kit double 120mm rad with all waterblocks s/hand 6 months old,yes it all works trial fitted with water,just need to replace pipes(precaution)and zalman water additive on there way,oh im doing CPU/GRAPHICS/CHIPSET.Amd 64 4000 san diego & X800 xt pe card.
Edited by that daddy on Thursday 31st August 09:55
Just a quickie.
You might find picking up a resevoir to be handy as well, sticking it somewhere hidden but easy to get to; it helps collect any air in the system and means that when you need to top the coolant up you just dump more in to it.
Something like this:
Resevoir -> Pump -> CPU -> GFX -> Anything Else -> Radiator -> Resevoir.
Pump sucks from the store of coolant squirts at the cpu in effect. You don't absolutley need a res' but worth considering whilst you sketch out your plumping
You might find picking up a resevoir to be handy as well, sticking it somewhere hidden but easy to get to; it helps collect any air in the system and means that when you need to top the coolant up you just dump more in to it.
Something like this:
Resevoir -> Pump -> CPU -> GFX -> Anything Else -> Radiator -> Resevoir.
Pump sucks from the store of coolant squirts at the cpu in effect. You don't absolutley need a res' but worth considering whilst you sketch out your plumping
Antec P180:
Looks like a good case to do your build in.
Here are some piccies of what Sadako came up with as a first attempt:
http://sarahhayes.is-a-geek.net/galle
Looks like a good case to do your build in.
Here are some piccies of what Sadako came up with as a first attempt:
http://sarahhayes.is-a-geek.net/galle
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